Editor’s Note: Names of faculty members who spoke during the meeting have been omitted, in accordance with the terms that allowed the Wheel to attend the meeting.
College faculty voted at a special meeting last Wednesday to hold a vote of no confidence in University President James W. Wagner via electronic ballot. The vote will take place as soon as possible, but a specific time frame has yet to be announced.
Following Wagner’s address to faculty members during last week’s faculty meeting, the group agreed to table the motion for a vote of no confidence, deciding to discuss and possibly vote on the motion later.
Although a vote of no confidence would not have a direct effect on Wagner’s position as University president, the vote would express the faculty’s belief that he is no longer fit to lead.
At the special meeting, faculty members proposed that the vote be held electronically due to the limited representation of the entire faculty in attendance. While faculty governance bylaws prohibit electronic votes for such motions, those in attendance voted to suspend the rules.
Prior to voting to amend the motion, the floor opened for debate on the issue of voting no confidence in Wagner. From the beginning, faculty wrestled with the idea of voting no confidence with many expressing that they were on the fence about the issue.
A faculty member advised that those in attendance not vote hastily and take the time to be thoughtful and more deliberate in deciding how to vote.
Faculty members in favor of voting no confidence in Wagner discussed his role in the College department cuts, as well as his recent Emory Magazine article, in which he referred to the Three-Fifths Compromise and a “lack of intellectual leadership.”
Some in attendance said Wagner’s article in Emory Magazine remains a reason to vote no confidence regardless of public apology.
“Sure, all of us have said something ill considered and then had to apologize, but as far as I recall, I’ve never done that as a president of an institution such as Emory,” one faculty member said. “This was not a slip of the tongue that came out after a dinner. This was an article that [Wagner] said was in the works since October.”
Another faculty member defended Wagner, citing the article as a mistake and expressed that his comments have led to a waterfall of criticisms on various issues.
“I find poor President Wagner, having made this mistake, is as if he has grabbed a lighting rod and taken all of the pent-up frustration people have … like someone who jumped into a shark tank with a small cut; he’s being devoured in the process,” the faculty member said.
Other faculty members noted that although they do not believe Wagner as an individual is in question, they maintain that his tenure as University president is not up to the faculty standards.
“I actually think he is a nice guy, but I think it’s interesting that this [faculty body] has been represented as sharks in a shark tank going at his body when I think we are the ones who are bleeding,” the faculty member said. “This faculty, as faculty [is] everywhere, is becoming increasingly disempowered. A vote of no confidence is one of the few tools that we have to assert a minimal amount of power.”
Some faculty debated about Wagner’s involvement in the department changes and whether or not he should be held accountable for the process by which they were conducted. One faculty member argued that although the president approved the department changes, he did not initiate them.
“If it is the cuts that are driving people … why not a motion of no confidence in the Dean [of the College Robin Forman]? He is the person who made the decision,” one faculty member said. “Or do we think the president of the University should have micromanaged the College and undercut the Dean? I would hope not.”
One faculty member said he feels there has been a disproportionate concern from faculty members in different aspects of liberal arts regarding vocal presence at the meeting.
“I don’t hear a peep coming out of the natural sciences in concern about what is happening,” the faculty member said. “I don’t hear what’s coming from the social sciences; there seems to be great concern about the humanities.”
The next faculty member to speak rejected the claim of Wagner’s limited role in the department cuts.
“I understand that it is the Dean’s decision, but I don’t understand the context in which the Dean has been placed,” the faculty member said.
In addition to recent campus controversies, some faculty members believe Wagner’s leadership, in his role as president through the last decade, is not up to the standards required of the position.
“[A no-confidence vote] will send a strong message that the way business has been conducted is not all right with us, that we can do better and that we are not satisfied simply with somebody who can raise money,” one faculty member said.
The faculty member added that Emory should demand “intellectual leadership,” meaning somebody who understands what faculty does in the College. The member added that, “[Wagner] simply doesn’t get it.”
Other faculty members defended Wagner, expressing that the main causes for the direction of the University are out of his control.
“The fact that the president lives in a bubble of administrators – that’s not President Wagner’s fault; that’s happening at all universities,” one faculty member said. “His salary being extraordinarily high, it’s true, it’s true of all U.S. university presidents, and indeed, the star system we have – of paying people at the top of anything – that is not his fault. The cuts are not his fault – they are within the college. And the article, we have already censured him.”
Some members argued that the ramifications of such a vote would put the University in a negative light.
One faculty member said that the vote would not be perceived as a constructive move and would not inspire the Emory community.
The faculty member noted that he believes Wagner’s work on the capital campaign is significant and a primary responsibility of the president. He said a vote of no confidence would generate serious perceptual consequences.
“I am concerned about the message we are sending to students,” the faculty member said. “We are coming down pretty hard on President Wagner, and in their perception, I think, that will be due to what he wrote in his column, even though I realize there are other issues of discontent here.”
He added that the condemnation of Wagner would send a message to students that, if they address sensitive issues, it would be at their peril.
The faculty member continued that he believes the consequences of voting no confidence in Wagner would hurt Emory’s ability to seek future leadership in a way that “would not inspire potential future leaders to face this faculty.”
Another faculty member noted that there is a continual tendency to conflate Wagner as a person and Wagner in his function and role as president.
“The idea is continually – he says, ‘I’m sorry,’ he apologizes, he seems genuine and he talks at great length about all the things he has to learn – and I applaud that, but my heart sinks a bit at hearing from a person who has been president for almost a decade talk about all the things he has to learn,” the faculty member said.
Toward the conclusion of the meeting, some faculty proposed alternatives to holding a vote. One faculty member said Wagner’s contract is coming to an end and that the faculty should simply ask the Board of Trustees to find a new president when that time comes. Another suggested biannual meetings between the College faculty and the Board of Trustees as a way to enhance communication.
“It’s great to see people here, but my guess is there [are] 200 people. The faculty of Emory College is more than 500,” a faculty member said. “If we were to vote unanimously in support of this, that’s a minority of the faculty, and I think if we are going to do something of this consequence, we need to get a representative vote of the Emory College faculty.”
– By Dustin Slade
The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.
The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.
“”I don’t hear a peep coming out of the natural sciences in concern about what is happening,” the faculty member said. “I don’t hear what’s coming from the social sciences; there seems to be great concern about the humanities.”
Well, Emory did just announce that chemistry is getting a brand new, 52$ million building. Now supposed some of the funding from that comes from pharma research dividends, but I have to imagine having a quarter of CFAC be from chemistry didn’t hurt. And of course those same people who haven’t said a “peep” against Wagner suddenly find their voices to adamantly argue against transparently investigating CFACs doings.
It must be easy to cut other people’s funding by pleading hard times when you know you and yours are about to see a huge payday. Classy, guys.
“He added that the condemnation of Wagner would send a message to students that, if they address sensitive issues, it would be at their peril.”
So Wagner’s 3/5ths column incited outrage because Wagner was “addressing a sensitive issue”? What sensitive issue might that be? The fact that he views university governance in the same light as civil rights’ violations borne out of exclusivity, privilege, ignorance, and desperation?
I certainly hope that a student who wrote a paper as offensive as Wagner’s column would get feedback from their professor – and by the way – that’s why it’s called *being a college student*, not *being a University President who makes over $1.2 million a year*. I’m pretty sure that the students at Emory are smart enough to know that a vote of no confidence in the President doesn’t apply to their situation in the classroom – they are there to learn, for god’s sake.
In fact – here we have a unique learning opportunity for those very students! Undergrads could learn one of the more valuable lessons of their college careers from the faculty with the courage to stand up for what’s right in the face of unchecked power, rather than the cowardly and inane defensive tactics from those hoping to trade transparency and fairness for short-term political gain.
No comments from natural science and social science faculty. Only 200 of 500 College faculty at last meeting. No comment from medicine, law, theology, nursing, business, Oxford. BOT says 100% support. Students more interested in next All-Row party. You are throwing pebbles at a battleship.
A battleship that’s already sinking thanks to a totally self inflicted broadside to its hull. When all this is over, bro, and the faculty votes NC, Wagner will be toast. He cannot survive without the endorsement of the college.
Actually the battleship is a great metaphor for Wagner – ponderous, woefully expensive, andulimately profoundly out of date and deeply vulnerable. The man is a walking talking showboat, circling the drain.
Slick, only the Chair has expressed support – and that was before
a solid two months of headlines, and appeals personally directed to the Board to request his resignation.
Also – the support of the college is determinative for Wagner because he trades
on the moral leadership his authority over the college represents (shaping young minds, even the value of the liberal arts) in his dealings with those other institutions and with the world. If they reject his right to speak in their name – which is precisely the right he invoked and lost in his article in the magazine – his loses the basis of his legitimacy. His whole ethics and responsibility shtick loses all credibility, and that’s all he has. Many of the people who have lived with him for a decade already don’t buy it, but when the vote goes through, the pretense will be gone for everybody. And that’s the real rub: do the faculty really want to have spend THEIR moral capital and THEIR legitimacy by explaining away Wagner’s continuing to speak in their name and with their authority, in their conversations with their colleagues and members of their field, a Emory and beyond?
“You are throwing pebbles at a battleship.”
If that’s true, why are you taking the time to defend Wagner and his buddies in a comments section of a student newspaper?
How come the names of faculty weren’t published in this article? If faculty members want to make accusations at meetings, they should stand behind them.
Faculty names have never appeared in Wheel articles about meetings, no matter what their position on a given issue.
Question: Are you using the handle “Anonymous” while demanding named accountability as a kind of ironic joke?
Yes, of course.
Spend enough time on these Boards, and you realize you can never take anything for granted. A few articles back someone wrote an extensive post in support of Wagner, denouncing in particular his supposed destruction by a cadre of “flamboyant homosexuals,” calling out various university employees by name as being “subnormal IQs” and then launched into an extensive argument that Jimmy Carter was a Nazi, all without stopping for a breath or a moment of critical reflection.
In other words: Irony is dead here.
I would rather do Bush than Dukakis!
I wrote that post, and you are completely lying about what I wrote. First of all, I made it clear in that post that I don’t support Wagner. I think that he should be replaced by a business minded president who’s not afraid to show these whiny liberal professors who’s boss! I also didn’t say that his destruction was caused by a bunch of flamboyant homosexuals. I said that when I visited Emory with my son, a lot of the non-teaching staff seemed to be flamboyantly gay. I’m not some religious freak and I don’t have a problem with what people do behind closed doors, but I’m not a big fan of leaving the Jerry Sanduskys of this world alone with children. I didn’t call out various university employees by name. I called out this one career counselor and he deserved it. He tried to get me to convince my bank to recruit at Emory. Then this bastard doesn’t answer my emails for several weeks. When I do someone a favor, I expect them to meet me halfway and maybe act somewhat grateful. My son didn’t even want to apply to Emory, so I really could have just told him to fuck off. As for Jimmy Carter, this guy was the worst president ever! He gave Iran to the Ayatollah and put the country through a painful period of stagflation. And he’s so anti-semitic. My wife was listening to him talk about Israel on TV one day and I thought they were interviewing some guy from the KKK. How do you that I didn’t stop for a breath. I was typing, not speaking. Some people say that I speak to fast, but I can’t help it, it’s a Long Island thing. You kid, are lying son of a bitch. When I went to Emory, the school was way more fun than it is now. Pretty much everyone was in a frat or sorority, the school hosted beer keg parties in the afternoon and are our lives weren’t controlled by liberal cock-suckers.
Emory alum, would you consider boosting your annual alumni contribution to Emory?
The meeting was held in White 208 which holds 280 people. The room was packed with people standing in the back so I think there was well more than half the Emory College faculty attending.
Here’s a bit of history that we should all remember.
When reached for comment, Wagner wrote in an e-mail to the Wheel that he had nothing to say other than to reiterate his disappointment at what he termed an “alleged act of disrespect and intolerance.”
http://www.emorywheel.com/archive/detail.php?n=28899
We support democracy,
not the bureaucracy,
the bureaucracy of hypocrisy
We fight for truth,
you’re spouting lies
that is why we can not compromise
The cuts are abominated,
’cause they weren’t negotiated
We’re willing to negotiate,
so the situation doesn’t detiorate,
but we can’t negotiate,
if you don’t act appropriate
You wanted to downsize,
but instead you got an uprise
from the faculty you got chastised
and Jovanna wasn’t surprised
The cuts could not be justified,
so your office was occupied
We’ll continue to agitate,
until you abdicate;
We’ll continue to demonstrate,
’cause this ain’t no police state
What you see as compromise,
we see as genocide
Hear my call to action,
I am not a fraction!